Democrats Had a Better Election Night Than It First Appeared

The “blue wave” took a little longer to crest than usual, but after several days of vote counting it looks like Democrats beat the historical average for the midterm elections.

With more races called since Election Night, Democrats have netted 30 seats in the House and are leading in five others.

The midterms mean the White House, on average in all 25 non-presidential cycles in the last century, loses 29 allies in the House. It appears House Democrats are just past that benchmark, outpacing the gains of at least 12 other midterm election cycles since 1918.

Typically, the party controlling the White House — in this case, Republicans — loses seats in midterm elections. In the last hundred years, only three times has the party in the White House seen gains in non-presidential years.

It wasn’t just the the House. Democrats picked up at least seven governors’ offices. The Senate map remains contingent on incredibly close races in Arizona and Florida; Democrats appear to have an advantage in Arizona, while Republicans in Florida have the advantage for now. Mississippi, which backed Donald Trump’s presidential bid in 2016 with 58% of the vote, won’t pick its Senator until a Nov. 27 runoff.

All of which is to say: There was a resettling of America’s politics this week. Voters in large numbers — 52 million and counting — decided House Democrats were the right roadblocks for Trump and said a record 100 women should be part of that mix. Voters booted Republicans from governors’ mansions in Michigan and Wisconsin, and held it in Pennsylvania, three states that were crucial for Trump’s 2016 win and his 2020 re-election bid. And the Senate, which began with Democrats facing a terrible uphill climb, is likely to fight to a draw.

3. ...

6. we had a tsunami

The blue tsunami hit the red wall of gerrymandering, voter purges, vote suppression and 24 / 7 / 365 propaganda (Fox and AM radio) and still managed to be a big enough wave on the other side to flush GOPers out of local, state and federal offices across the country.

If we had managed a blue wave, it would have made ripples, if it even crested that red wall.

Everyone who worked to make the tsunami real should take a bow -- a whole nation owes thanks, even if 40% don't realize it yet.